14-25 year olds want to start their own business

A quarter of 14-25 year olds want to start their own business when they leave school, according to research by Barclays Youth Barometer, which tracks the aspirations of young people for the future.

However, this generation expect to face barriers in realising their work ambitions, they face in starting their careers, with six in 10 (61%), thinking it will be harder to get a job on leaving in school in the next six months compared to now. Furthermore, nearly three quarters (72%) don’t believe they will achieve their work ambitions.

The Barclays Youth Barometer found that more than one in 10 (11%) 14-25 year olds believe that businesses, through providing work experience, are the one group which needs to do more to help them realise their ambitions.

The research follows the launch by Barclays of LifeSkills, a major new curriculum linked education programme which aims by 2015 to equip one million young people with the skills they need for work and connect them with work experience opportunities.

When it comes to gaining skills and experience to help make the step from education to the work place, four in 10 (42%) of those young people who completed work experience said it was very useful. Nearly a third (32%) of young people thought that an apprenticeship was the best way to start a career.

Ashok Vaswani, Chief Executive of Barclays Retail and Business Banking said: “The challenge faced by business, government and education providers is to ensure this ambition can be realised by creating the opportunities they need when they start their careers.

“We understand that only by equipping young people with the right skills and quality work experience will we enable young people to reach their potential. It’s why businesses, government, and schools have to work in partnership to achieve lasting improvements in the journey young people take from school to work.”

During 2013, LifeSkills aim is to make 50,000 work experience opportunities available. Barclays will provide at least 6,000 opportunities and is encouraging businesses of all sizes across the UK to get involved. Waitrose, Centrica, ISS and McDonald’s will be working together with Barclays on LifeSkills to help unlock work experience opportunities for 14-16 year olds.